It is
fun to watch Big Oil critic Al Gore squirm as he is questioned about selling
out to the oil-rich dictatorship in Qatar. But his sale of Current TV
to Al Jazeera is not a laughing matter. This transaction is a homeland
security threat that violates
numerous U.S. laws.

To his
credit, funnyman David Letterman got close to the truth when he asked
the former Democratic vice-president, “Now why do we think of Al
Jazeera as something not right going on there in terms of, in terms of
the good for Americans? Why do we think that they may be propaganda for
Muslim violence and terrorism?”

“Well,
it’s certainly not,” Gore replied. “And many years ago
it put some videos on in the Arabic version that I think were misinterpreted,
but the Al Jazeera English and now Al Jazeera America [are] really high
quality stuff. They’re very widely respected, and people see for
themselves. And, by the way, their climate coverage is higher quality
and more extensive than any network on TV now in the U.S.”

Gore’s
answer to Letterman shows that he is not being honest with those concerned
about the deal. If Gore will lie to protect his $100 million payoff from
the Arab dictatorship in Qatar, a major oil and gas producer, what else
will he lie about? Global warming?

First,
the “misinterpreted” videos were from Osama bin Laden—and
al Qaeda, which is still trying to kill us. There is nothing to misinterpret.
Paul L. Williams, author of the new book, Crescent
Moon Rising points out that, during Operation Enduring Freedom,
the official name for the war in Afghanistan, “All the tapes from
al Qaeda were aired on Al Jazeera to inflame the Arab world. They added
all that fuel so that our troops would be killed.” Al Jazeera’s
correspondent in Afghanistan, who interviewed bin Laden, was sent to prison
for being an agent of al Qaeda.

In Iraq,
after the American invasion, the same thing occurred. Al Jazeera’s
first managing director was exposed as an agent of the Saddam Hussein
regime and the channel promoted the anti-American insurgency. The coverage
inspired foreign Jihadists to come to Iraq to kill American soldiers,
as captured terrorists acknowledged in interviews.

The
new film, “Zero Dark Thirty,” mentions that the courier who
eventually led the CIA to bin Laden was located in Pakistan near an Al
Jazeera office in order to get the terrorist leader’s videotapes
to the channel for worldwide distribution. This was no accident. The collaboration
between Al Jazeera and al Qaeda continues to the present day. The channel
has interviewed almost every major al Qaeda leader, including Anwar Al-Awlaki,
who inspired the Ft. Hood massacre through his contacts with Muslim Army
soldier Nidal Hasan. Al-Awlaki was also linked to the attempted bombing
in the U.S. on Christmas Day by radical Muslim Umar Farouk.

Second,
despite what Al Gore implies, the Arabic and English versions of Al Jazeera
are paid for by the same dictatorship. Even Hillary Clinton’s State
Department admits that, adding that Qatar controls the news policies and
personnel of the channel.

Gore
was on Letterman promoting his new book, The Future, which was
obviously written before his deal with Al Jazeera was finalized. This
is why his mentions of Al Jazeera in the book are so important. He refers
to Al Jazeera in the book as the “relatively independent”
network that played a role in the so-called “Arab spring.”

It is
interesting that this “relatively independent” network has
now become “very highly-respected,” as he claimed on Letterman.

It’s
apparent that Gore is talking about the channel in glowing terms in order
to justify his receipt of $100 million from the $500 million deal. Gore
doesn’t want to admit the truth because then he would be exposed
for selling Current TV to Al Jazeera not only for “dirty”
oil money, but also for blood money. The American blood on the hands of
Al Jazeera is real.

Every
time that you see a wounded member of the American military, or attend
a service for those who died defending America, there is the distinct
possibility that the death and destruction was carried out by Jihadists
egged on by Al Jazeera.

In terms
of Al Jazeera’s news coverage, praised by Al Gore on Letterman and
the NBC Today Show, my associate and friend Jerry Kenney, an independent
television producer, tells me, “He talked about how many awards
Al Jazeera has been given. That is no surprise to me. The arsonist is
always the first to see the fire. Al Jazeera lights it and then reports
it.”

This
is a very serious matter. If Al Jazeera reaches English-speaking Arabs
and Muslims in the U.S. with its incendiary messages, we could see suicide
bombings on the streets of America and the development of more al Qaeda
cells plotting 9/11-type terrorist attacks. The purpose of “Al Jazeera
America” is to reach English-speaking Muslims who don’t speak
Arabic with inflammatory words and images making America out to be the
enemy and villain in the Middle East.

Nidal
Hasan is an example of what could happen. He did not speak Arabic well
but communicated with Anwar Al-Awlaki, the English-speaking al-Qaeda leader
who was born in the U.S. but operated out of Yemen, ordering and directing
mass murder in America. He used the Internet but also praised Al Jazeera
journalists by name in a “Message
to the Media.”

Recognizing
the danger, President Barack Obama was urged by U.S. intelligence agencies
to order the murder of Al-Awlaki through a drone strike. Al-Awlaki was
killed, but Al Jazeera, his favorite television channel, is very much
alive and now, thanks to Al Gore, establishing a permanent base on U.S.
soil, possibly reaching 40-50 million homes.

Despite
this looming threat and questions about the legality of the purchase,
conservative members of Congress are silent. In the House, supposedly
under Republican control, an aide to Rep. Michael McCaul, newly appointed
chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he does not want
the “agenda” of the committee driven by the hundreds of Americans
calling his office at 202-226-8417 and requesting an investigation of
Al Jazeera’s terrorist ties.

Instead,
McCaul recently posed
for pictures with various Democrats at the Port of Houston after a
bipartisan briefing on security measures at the facility. He issued a
statement
saying, “It wasn’t too long ago in Abbottabad they found documents
from bin Laden indicating he wanted to target oil tankers, and that puts
this port at risk.”

This
is true and port security is a legitimate area of inquiry. But we also
know that those
bin Laden documents, according to CNN’s Peter Bergen, included
a plan to “craft the perfect media message” on the 10th anniversary
of the September 11 attacks by urging contacts between al Qaeda and Al
Jazeera.

The
terrorist leader said al Qaeda should contact the correspondents of Al
Jazeera Arabic and English “and tell them that we are willing to
cooperate with them in the area of covering the tenth anniversary by answering
any questions that you think the public is interested in.”

So it
was apparent, from the leader of this terrorist group, that both Al Jazeera
Arabic and Al Jazeera English were considered outlets for al-Qaeda propaganda
messages.

There
is no reason to believe the new Al Jazeera America will be any different.
And the inevitable result will be more cases of terrorist violence and
murder on American soil.

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A hearing
into this deal would make things difficult for McCaul and other Republicans
who want to pursue a bipartisan agenda and do not want to irritate Obama
and the Democrats. The co-owners of Current TV, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt,
are prominent Democrats, and another investor in the company, Richard
Blum, is the husband of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. Selling their
Current TV to Al Jazeera is somewhat comparable to turning over American
broadcast facilities during World War II to Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally,
the propagandists for the German and Japanese enemies. They were prosecuted
and convicted for treason for broadcasting their propaganda against America
from overseas.

But
investigating Al Jazeera is the right thing to do and a necessary component
of homeland security. After all, members of Congress do swear an oath
to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against
all enemies, foreign and domestic…”